Washington's wolves in the news

The Spokesman-Review on Sunday ran a feature article telling the story of Conservation Northwest's budding range rider program. This last season, 2013, Conservation Northwest expanded the program to sponsor range riders for three ranch families in Washington.

For ranchers, “it’s a new business now, a new world,” said Jay Kehne of Conservation Northwest, a Bellingham-based environmental group that works on issues across Washington and British Columbia....Conservation Northwest helps finance three range riders in Washington – the Dawsons in Stevens County, and others in Cle Elem and Wenatchee.

After Johnson touched on the background of the state's recent involvement with wolves in the Teanaway, he entertained questions, one of which came from Conservation Northwest's Jay Kehne. Kehne wanted to know why Johnson, an obvious candidate for membership in the anti-wolf camp, would get involved with the Range Riding Program. "I took the job," Johnson said, "to see what the wolves are really doing. I wanted to sort through the politics of the issue and get to the facts. I wanted firsthand knowledge."

The comment deadline for protecting wolves in much of the United States including the Northwest has been extended to 10/28/13, with public hearings scheduled for Sacramento, Albuquerque, and Washington DC.

It’s fortunate that so many organizations have stepped forward … Safari Club International, a hunter-supported entity, and Conservation Northwest, a pro-large-carnivore organization based in Bellingham.

…the Wolf Advisory Group…represents a broad range of interests including the Farm Bureau, Conservation Northwest, the Sierra Club, Wolf Haven, the Humane Society, Hunters Heritage, and a representative of the Quad County Commission from northeast Washington.

Over 50,000 acres of rich watershed and habitat for wolves and other wildlife in the Teanaway River Valley will soon be acquired and managed as Washington State public land, thanks to the ongoing work of Forterra and other partners. The Teanaway acquisition adds to the Cascades habitat connectivity objectives spearheaded by Conservation Northwest through our Cascades Conservation Partnership.

Guest column by Mitch Friedman, executive director of Conservation Northwest. "The Chronicle’s June 12 editorial on the federal proposal to take wolves off the list of endangered species could leave readers less informed than if they hadn’t read the paper...."

Conservation Northwest urges continued protection for Washington's Cascades wolves and their recognition as a distinct population. This approach would allow all the aspects of the Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan to be fully implemented, while allowing for higher federal poaching fines and greater accountability to recovery goals.

Editorial: Recovery has been robust, but it’s not yet complete; the federal government should abandon its premature plan to remove protections for gray wolves. Last month, 16 scientists responsible for most of the research that the Fish and Wildlife Service used in its latest delisting decision sent a letter to agency Director Dan Ashe protesting that their findings had been mischaracterized. “We do not believe the rule reflects the conclusions of our work or the best available science concerning the recovery of wolves,” they wrote.

The wolf, originally a member of the Teanaway pack, had been ear-tagged two years earlier, when “it had been captured but was too young to collar,” said Jay Kehne of Conservation Northwest, which has worked alongside state officials to monitor the state’s burgeoning wolf population. “When it was captured, it was a scrawny, half-dead wolf. And two years later, it was this beautiful adult.”.... And those wolves will flourish wherever there’s a consistent prey base, such as that found in the wooded canyons between Wenatchee and Ellensburg. “There’s an awfully good food supply in that area, with the deer and elk higher up,” said Kehne, the Conservation Northwest outreach coordinator who is sits on the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Conservationists claim federal restrictions are still needed. “Recovery in the western part of (Washington) is still fragile,” said Mitch Friedman, executive director of Conservation Northwest. “Hopefully in a few years we’ll have a more sustainable and durable population in the Cascades, but right now the difference between existing federal regulations and fairly wimpy state rules make us nervous.”

The state has passed legislation funding proven methods including range riding to reduce conflicts with large carnivores. Funds will come from $10 added to the cost of a Washington vanity license plate. The change is expected to raise more than $1 million/year without raising taxes.

Mitch Friedman of the group Conservation Northwest said giving ranchers the assurance they can protect their cattle in heavily populated wolf country is reasonable as long as wolves are strictly protected in areas of the state where they are rare.

Wenatchee is blessed with nearby wild lands and accessible wildlife. News that wolves have been seen in our foothills provides our community with another opportunity to face change not by clinging to old ideas and prejudices but instead by seeing change as an opportunity we are able to manage.

"People in Eastern Washington not going to go on a wolf killing spree. We're not interested annihilating, creating a blood bath. What we do want to do is to protect our livelihoods and our property if that occurs," said Jamie Henneman, Stevens County Cattlemen's Association.

“The cattlemen have to, in my opinion, be more willing to possibly change some of their practices even though that’s not going to be as easy as a lot of people think it should be,” said Dave Hendrick, Conservation Northwest board member.

"We certainly understand the anxiety that people feel they might face a crisis with a wolf and not have a permit in their pocket," said Conservation Northwest executive director Mitch Friedman. "Unless there's a record of someone trying to prevent a situation like that and having repeated encounters, we probably don't want people being able to shoot from the hip."

As proved by [rancher] Patton, Oregon and Washington ranchers and wolves can coexist, and almost 75 percent of our state's citizens want them here. Cheers to nonlethal ranching, wolves in our northern states, and the Endangered Species Act.

On a 25-to-23 vote, the Senate passed SB 5187 to allow the owner of livestock or a domestic animal to kill a gray wolf attacking or posing an imminent threat to those animals on private and public lands without regard to the wolf's endangered status and without needing any permit.

“We have remarkable growth of wolves in Washington,” said Donny Martorello, carnivore section manager for the Department of Fish & Wildlife, which conducted the survey. “This is what you see when a colonizing population is finding suitable habitat and really taking off.”